Rattling The Bars

In October of 1966, the Black Panther Party was founded in Oakland, California. Since then, the Panthers have been a driving radical force for Black liberation, self-defense, and community organization and self-determination. In this special episode of Rattling the Bars commemorating the 55th anniversary of the founding of the BPP, TRNN Executive Producer and former Lieutenant of Security for the...

As we’ve covered previously on Rattling the Bars, prisons in the US have been a major source of COVID-19 infections throughout the pandemic, and experts have suggested that the reality is even worse than the limited data have shown. Now, as the more contagious Delta variant causes another surge in cases in prisons around the country, certain states have stopped sharing infection statistics with th...

In this episode of Rattling the Bars, TRNN Executive Producer and former Black Panther Eddie Conway discusses the differences between prisons in Cuba and in the United States. Of the two, only one incarcerates children, only one deliberately isolates prisoners from their families and communities, and only one uses long-term solitary confinement as a routine punishment—and it's not Cuba. "In Cuba y...

TRNN Executive Producer and former Black Panther Eddie Conway talks to author and activist Dominque Conway about Gloria Richardson, a fierce activist who led a multi-year campaign against segregation in Cambridge, Md. Richardson, who died July 15, 2021, was not as widely known as other civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. or Fannie Lou Hamer. Nevertheless, she was an important figure i...

In recent episodes of Rattling the Bars, TRNN’s weekly show on the violence and victims of the prison-industrial complex, legendary Black Panther and longtime political prisoner Eddie Conway and his guests have examined the 13th Amendment, the exploitation of prisoner slave labor in the US today, and the people who are fighting to put an end to this barbaric practice for good. As a crucial follow-...

To celebrate Black August, TRNN Executive Producer and former Black Panther Eddie Conway talks with Claude Marks about the life and legacy of revolutionary author and activist George Jackson 50 years after his assassination. Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and making a small donation: Donate: https://therealnews.com/donate-yt Sign up for...

Thanks to the 13th Amendment, slavery still exists in the US in the form of low- or no-wage prison labor. But organizers like Jeronimo Aguilar and John Cannon are working to end this practice for good. Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and making a small donation: Donate: https://therealnews.com/donate-yt Sign up for our newsletter: https:/...

After surviving a deadly pandemic, workers in the US are reluctant to return to unsafe workplaces for poverty wages. Rather than offer better pay, protections, and benefits, businesses are choosing to exploit prison labor. Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and making a small donation: Donate: https://therealnews.com/donate-yt Sign up for ou...

After Gov. Ned Lamont signed a new bill into law in June, Connecticut became the first state in the US to make phone calls free for incarcerated people, including those in juvenile detention facilities. Studies show that having access to phone calls reduces violence in prisons and prisoner recidivism rates, so why have prisons and private companies been allowed to charge such exorbitant prices for...

Kip Kinkel was publicly reviled when, suffering from undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenia, he shot and killed his mother and father before killing two of his classmates and wounding 25 others in a mass shooting at Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, in 1998. Kinkel pled guilty to murder and attempted murder and was sentenced to 111 years in jail without the possibility of parole. Since then...

Sonia Kumar, senior attorney at the ACLU of Maryland, explains the movement to restore the parole option to people sentenced for serious crimes in childhood. Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and making a small donation: Donate: https://therealnews.com/donate-yt Sign up for our newsletter: https://therealnews.com/nl-yt Like us on Facebook...

ACLU legal expert Sonia Kumar says the ruling slows but does not stop the movement toward more just sentencing for juveniles. Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and making a small donation: Donate: https://therealnews.com/donate-yt Sign up for our newsletter: https://therealnews.com/nl-yt Like us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/therealnews...

What does 'environmental racism' mean? What does it look like in practice? When researchers discovered that residents of the small, unincorporated, predominantly Black community of Tallevast, Florida, were experiencing abnormally high rates of cancer and miscarriages, it was clear that something was wrong. Tallevast, a town shaped by the legacy of segregation, is the site of the now-defunct Loral...

Eddie Conway talks to two experts about the latest infection rates, issues with transparency, and more. Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and making a small donation: Donate: https://therealnews.com/donate-yt Sign up for our newsletter: https://therealnews.com/nl-yt Like us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/therealnews Follow us on Twitter:...

The French government has renewed its attempts to extradite professor and exonerated terrorism suspect Hassan Diab. In this extended interview, we talk with Roger Clark of the Hassan Diab Support Committee and Monia Mazigh on the latest developments in Diab's case and why it's important to have all eyes on it. Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following...

Roger Clark of the Hassan Diab Support Committee and author and human rights academic Monia Mazigh say officials based their case against Diab on problematic evidence. They update TRNN host Eddie Conway about the latest information out of this long-winding case, and why they believe Diab should be freed. Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us an...

In this episode of "Rattling the Bars," we get an inside and outside view of the ongoing, slow-moving disaster happening in Maryland prisons, which have failed to adequately protect inmates, guards, and the surrounding communities from COVID-19. TRNN Executive Producer Eddie Conway speaks with Pamela Sessoms, whose incarcerated fiancé contracted COVID inside a Maryland prison, and Marc Schindler,...

California is experiencing a public health disaster by keeping people incarcerated in overcrowded, unsanitary, and violent conditions. TRN Executive Producer Eddie Conway speaks with Amber-Rose Howard, Executive Director of Californians United for a Responsible Budget, about how her organization is fighting for prison closures, divestment, and mass releases. Help us continue producing radically in...

In this urgent, unscheduled episode of “Rattling the Bars,” Eddie Conway talks to Pam Africa, legendary Philadelphia activist and head of the International Concerned Friends and Family of Mumia Abu-Jamal, about the health of longtime prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was diagnosed with COVID-19 last week, and about the grassroots push to get him released. Phone numbers mentioned during this episode: P...

Since 2002, Greek revolutionary and activist Dimitris Koufontinas has been in prison for his role in the Revolutionary Organization 17 November (17N). Labelled a “terrorist” by the Greek government, Koufontinas began a hunger strike on Jan. 8, 2021, and has been refusing water since Feb. 22, in protest of his draconian treatment in prison. With his health rapidly deteriorating, time is running out...

Until recently, the horrifyingly unjust reality of America’s mass incarceration system has not been a central concern in popular political discourse. In the past few years, however, more people have learned about the brutality and inhumanity of mass incarceration as artists, activists, documentarians, and elected officials have called attention to the broken U.S. criminal justice system—and its di...

Flint Taylor and Jeff Haas, co-founders of the People’s Law Office in Chicago, were the lead lawyers in the landmark case that exposed the FBI’s involvement in the assassination of Black Panthers Fred Hampton and Mark Clark. While that case was settled nearly 40 years ago, newly revealed documents show that the conspiracy to murder Hampton and cover up evidence of government involvement goes deepe...

Public health experts and advocates continue to shine a light on the horrifying statistics of COVID-19 infections within the prison-industrial complex. Those same experts, moreover, have shown that outbreaks in prisons and jails spread quickly and violently to communities outside prison walls. And yet, this humanitarian and public health crisis is still largely going unaddressed. In this week's ep...

Eddie Conway, former Lieutenant of Security for the Baltimore Black Panther Party, was locked up on dubious charges and held as a political prisoner for over 40 years. Conway is part of a generation of Black radicals and revolutionaries who were imprisoned, killed, or otherwise wiped off the political map in the decades of organized reaction following the radical 60s. But their revolutionary strug...

In 1980, Eddie Conway participated in and helped organize a prisoners’ educational outreach program called “To Say Their Own Words,” where thinkers and scholars came to Maryland Penitentiary and spoke about topics like impending U.S. fascism, the prison-industrial complex, capitalism, increased surveillance, and many other issues that have become even more pressing today. These speakers included A...